HemNyheterb-solutions: A pilot initiative to tackle border obstacles and difficulties along EU internal land borders

13 februari, 2019

b-solutions: A pilot initiative to tackle border obstacles and difficulties along EU internal land borders

A second call for proposals is now open!

b-solutions in a nutshell

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What?

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b-solutions is a 2-year long initiative to tackle legal and administrative border obstacles along EU internal borders.

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It is promoted by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) and managed by the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR) as one of the actions proposed in the Communication ”Boosting growth and cohesion in EU border regions”.

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b-solutions consists of two calls for proposals, one opened in early 2018, one running in early 2019. Public authorities of border administrations can submit a short description of the legal or administrative obstacle they face in implementing projects in a border area. Successful candidates are assigned support from the European Commission to remove the difficulties which hinder cooperation with the neighbouring country.

With b-solutions, DG REGIO and AEBR offer the possibility to find a solution to concrete obstacles to cross-border cooperation and to contribute finding innovative policies to foster a more and better connected European Union.

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For whom?

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b-solutions addresses cross-border cooperation practitioners.

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In particular, public bodies governing at the local, regional or national level can participate in the call, as well as cross-border entities with legal personality, also if they are not public bodies (EGTCs, Euroregions and similar CB structures).

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Why?

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Participants will be able to foster their projects of cooperation with the neighbouring region, will contribute to forge policy recommendations for EU’s integration and will support Cohesion Policy.

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Exploit the momentum of having the European Commission’s attention on cross-border cooperation issues. b-solutions is the best framework for you to test effective ways of overcoming border obstacles of a legal and/or administrative nature along EU internal land borders.

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Participating organisations will significantly increase their visibility and prestige towards European, national, regional and local decision-makers and towards the other cross-border actors all over Europe. As a result of the implementation of b-solutions, lessons learned and policy recommendations from both calls will be utilised to create greater knowledge on cross-border cooperation. The ultimate goal of b-solutions is to contribute to European integration providing the best tools to CBC practitioners.

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Finally, Cohesion Policy might suffer from an important reduction in the available funding. Therefore, it is crucial to give the right attention and visibility to successful cross-border solutions and generate support from EU citizens, governments and institutions to keep cross-border cooperation – and related funding – as a crucial part of European integration.

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How?

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If you are facing an obstacle that hinders the smooth implementation of projects in your area, you can participate in the second call for proposals which will open soon.